Yeah, I know I haven't uploaded for a long time... I had to write a story to enter the Quetzal Route competition, and my final tests, and other things. Still, those went up until the middle of December, and I have no excuse for not uploading since then. Now I'm on summer holidays until March, so I'll upload faster.
cheese123m, "lo mismo" means the same. And I don't know Japanese, so you won't see it in this story. Besides, Antonio was shown speaking Spanish on the show, so why should I change it?
So, to the story, shall we?
Skipper slowly opened his eyes. Where was he? All he could see was something dark grey above him. But it didn't look like the ceiling of the HQ.
Suddenly, the recent events struck him. Marlene! He jumped up and put a fighting stance. It was dark and all he could see were the bars of a cage.
"Kowalski, options!" he exclaimed. But no one answered.
"Kowalski?" he asked and took a closer look at the cage. There was nobody else in there. So he put his face through the bars and tried to see where he was. At first, he couldn't see a thing. But his eyes soon got used to the darkness and he distinguished four more cages in the room. He forced his eyes and managed to see each of his teammates in a cage. He couldn't see what was in the last one; all he could see was a strange dark shape.
While he was trying to figure out what it was, he heard a soft noise behind him.
"Skipper?"
The penguin turned around, his heart pounding against his chest furiously. For a second, he wondered why he had that reaction. After all, even if it was her voice and he'd been hoping he'd hear it soon, it shouldn't make his heart beat so fast, and the overwhelming wave of happiness that ran through his body had no reason to be there. But he quickly shook the thought off.
"Marlene?"
He still couldn't see clearly, but he could distinguish her shape in the darkness that surrounded them. It was her; there was no doubt. Next to her cage was another one with an animal that Skipper wondered who it was.
"Skipper! Is that you?"
Marlene put her face through the bars of the cage. Despite the darkness, her hazel eyes seemed to shine with happiness. Beautiful eyes, Skipper thought for a second. Then, in horror, he realised what he'd just thought and mentally kicked himself for it. He did the same Marlene had.
"Marlene! Are you all right?"
"Yeah, but how did you guys get here?"
"Because of Evey's note!" The mention of her name made him remember all about her. "Where is that poisonous little rat? She'll get what she deserves for this!" The rage in his voice was clear. "She'll regret daring to hurt you!"
"This isn't about me, Skipper" Marlene said, though the penguin seemed to think otherwise.
"Of course it is! She played with your emotions as if they were a toy! She made you feel betrayed, then pretended to be your friend just to betray you again! You aren't a doll! You have feelings!"
Marlene couldn't believe she was actually hearing this! "And since when do you care so much about my feelings?"
The question hit Skipper like a punch in the gut. Marlene was right. Why was he so concerned about what the otter was feeling? It had been happening to him since…
Since Antonio appeared, he realised. That otter seemed to have changed him. The moment he appeared, he cared much more about Marlene than he ever did. He had already concluded that he was jealous, but why?
He tried to analyze it once more. If a jealous person wanted something someone else had, that meant… that he wanted Marlene?
The explanation suddenly popped up in his brain. Of course. He wanted her, he cared about her feelings, something he didn't care about in anyone else, not even himself…
He liked Marlene.
The thought seemed to turn his whole world upside down. All his life, he'd told his men that love was a distraction. He thought so himself. Women and relationships had no place in a military penguin's career. That would only draw attention away from work.
But he had fallen. He had fallen for the otter and he knew there was no way he could fight it. He didn't understand feelings generally, but this was clear now.
While Skipper thought all this, Marlene waited for an answer. But she didn't get it. Nor could she find one herself. He had always been so closed to anything related with the heart that this was really confusing. But also nice. It was sweet on Skipper's part that he cared about feelings for once. Although it was also weird. If he'd never cared for his own feelings, or those of his team, or the feelings of any zoo inhabitant, why did he now care about hers? No answer came up to her brain.
"Since…" her thoughts were interrupted by Skipper's low voice. "Since Antonio did that to you."
Marlene was speechless. With those words, he had actually admitted that he did care for her feelings.
"Why is that?"
Skipper gulped. He'd never been good at matters of the heart, but this time he had to talk about it. If he was going to tell her, this was the perfect time. So he gathered all his courage to say what he had to say.
"Because I l-"
"Maurice, where are we?"
Annoyed, Skipper turned around. Great. Ringtail was up. His chance was gone.
The strange shape which he hadn't been able to figure out what it was, turned out to be the lemurs. Julien was on top and soon got up; so did Maurice. Mort had been crushed under the two, but he still got up quickly, in his usual cheery mood.
"Umm… I don't know, your Majesty" Maurice said. "I can't see a thing."
"Ringtail" Skipper scolded, turning to them. "I hope you're happy with what you caused."
"What?"
"Hello! Hadn't it been for you, we wouldn't be in here!"
"Dat is a wrong accusation! De king never –"
"Skipper?" a different voice said.
He turned his head.
"Kowalski!" Skipper said, relieved. "Are you all right?"
"I think so."
"Excelente. We have to get out of here. I need options!"
Kowalski took his clipboard and tried to make some notes, but it was too dark to write. "Think", he told himself. "How can we get out of…?" He looked around and when his eyes got used to the darkness, he realised he was in a cage. He could also see everyone else's cage: Skipper, the lemurs, Private, Rico…
Rico.
"Of course!" he thought. "Skipper, if we wake Rico up, he can cut through the bars with his chainsaw."
"Good plan! But how do we wake-"
Some grunts cut him off as Rico woke up. He looked around, and as he couldn't see anything, he regurgitated a torch and turned it on. When he saw everyone, the confusion on his face seemed to fade away. The moment he illuminated Private, the young penguin woke up, dazzled by the light.
"Skippah?"
"Private!" The penguin leader turned to him. "All men are up. Perfecto!"
"Umm… Skipper?" Marlene's soft voice seemed to make his heart skip a beat. "Antonio isn't up."
"Antonio?" he said, surprised. Rico pointed the torch at the male otter and he soon woke up.
"¿Qué pasa?" he asked, a bit sleepy. Marlene was going to answer him but Skipper spoke first.
"Wake up, you two-timing idiot… We have to get out of here, and that includes you, even when you're a dumbass."
"Who are you calling a dumbass?" Antonio answered, getting up and looking at him in a slightly menacing way.
"You, because that's what you are!"
Antonio was going to answer with a long insult in Spanish when Marlene interrupted them.
"If you two are finished with your childish talk, we have to start with Kowalski's plan so that we can all leave."
"Leave? I'm afraid that won't be possible, miss" a deep voice said.
Rico turned the torch off and swallowed it just in time for the squirrel that entered the place not to see it.
"There's no way out of here, so you'd better stop thinking that kind of things if you know what's best for you", he said threateningly. "The boss is coming to talk to you." He left, and immediately Blowhole came in.
"Well, well, well" he said, grinning in an evil way. "It seems that once more you have fallen into my trap, penguins." He stared at each of the four, then at Marlene and Antonio. "I have to say, you are wonderful bait" he added mockingly. Then he looked at the lemurs. "And thanks to you. If it weren't for you, maybe my enemies wouldn't have been caught." Skipper growled at the memory. Stupid Ringtail. "Still, I have something special for you, ex – partner. You betrayed me, and those who betray me often end up regretting it…" He laughed maniacally. "But before I do that, I'll tell you my plan to rule the world!" He laughed again. "You see, after I escaped you last time, I needed to form a new army. But I could see that crabs weren't the best option. They are good fighters, but not very intelligent, and I needed someone who could understand and make good use of my gadgets. While in my search, I was at a forest when I found the black squirrels. I got to know them and soon realised they are more intelligent than crabs and just as skilled in combat. So I recluted an army of squirrels, but I still needed a lair. And one of them told me about Hoboken Zoo, where they kept many of their race. The zoo had been closed for a while because apparently it wasn't in good condition and no publicity was made of that, so nobody knew about the closing up. It was a perfect place, so I installed my technology here. Now I have designed a special ray that will make the squirrels bigger and more powerful. With them, I shall conquer the world!" He laughed for the third time.
While Blowhole talked, Rico had silently regurgitated a normal saw and was cutting a bar of his cage. When the bar was no longer holding to the cage, he held it in place so the dolphin didn't notice.
"As for you, I have something special prepared, like the lemur, but I won't reveal it… It's a surprise… A lovely surprise!" And once more, he cackled in his strange way.
At that moment, Rico threw the bar at Blowhole's remote. It pressed a button and the cages went open. Everyone immediately came out.
The evil doctor slapped his forehead. "Great. Minions, attack!"
Suddenly, squirrels came out of everywhere and charged at them! Skipper recognised Jack, the one from the entrance, and attacked him. He threw a punch, which the squirrel dodged and responded with a kick right into his feet, making him fall. Meanwhile, a specially big squirrel stood just a few steps away from Marlene and smirked at her. "Such a pretty thing. It's a pity I must destroy you." And with that, he jumped.
"Marlene!" screamed Skipper. He tried to get up, but the squirrel kept him on the floor, making him watch as the huge black mammal went through the air to get Marlene.
Cliffhanger! Well, kinda. Anyway, "que pasa" means "what's going on". Thanks for reading and as always review! I won't take as long to upload next chapter, I promise!
BTW, thanks to Skoolgrl09 for the word "two-timing", I didn't know it (what? I don't live in an English speaking country!)
See you in next chapter!